GPU accelerated marine data visualization method

The study of marine data visualization is of great value. Marine data, due to its large scale, random variation and multiresolution in nature, are hard to be visualized and analyzed. Nowadays, constructing an ocean model and visualizing model results have become some of the most important research topics of ‘Digital Ocean'. In this paper, a spherical ray casting method is developed to improve the traditional ray-casting algorithm and to make efficient use of GPUs. Aiming at the ocean current data, a 3D view-dependent line integral convolution method is used, in which the spatial frequency is adapted according to the distance from a camera. The study is based on a 3D virtual reality and visualization engine, namely the VV-Ocean. Some interactive operations are also provided to highlight the interesting structures and the characteristics of volumetric data. Finally, the marine data gathered in the East China Sea are displayed and analyzed. The results show that the method meets the requirements of real-time and interactive rendering.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing Aerial photography and image interpretation for Resource Management . DAVID P. PAINE . Analytical Models and Techniques Spatial Processes Models and Applications A. D. CLIFF AND J. K. ORD Quantitative and Statistical Approaches to Geography: A Practical Manual JOHN A. MATTHEWS . Cartography and Maps Map Data Processing . HERBERT FREEMAN AND GOFFREDO G. PIERONI , eds. Computer-assisted Cartography: Principles and Prospects, 1982 . MARK S. MONMONIER . Cultural Navajo Architecture: Forms, History, Distributions . STEPHEN C. JETT AND VIRGINIA E . SPENCER . Rational Landscapes and Humanistic Geography . EDWARD RELPH . Economic The Structure and Control of a State Economy . W. L. L'ESPERANCE . Economic Geography . JAMES O. WHEELER AND PETER O. MULLER . The Myth of the Family Farm: Agribusiness Dominance of U.S. Agriculture . INGOLF VOCELER . Libya: The Experience of Oil . J. A. ALLEN . Geography of Public Finance, Welfare Under Fiscal Federalism and local Government Finance . ROBERT BENNETT . Environmental Management, Resources, and Systems Mountains and Man . LARRY W. PRICE . Environmental Geology . DONALD R. COATES . An Introduction to Environmental Systems . G. H. DURY . The Environment: Chinese and American Views . Edited by LAURENCE J. C. MA AND ALLEN G. NOBLE . Land Use in America . RICHARD H. JACKSON . Medical Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Medical Geography . MELINDA S. MEADE (ed.). Philosophy and Geographic Thought Birds in Egg/Eggs in Bird . GUNNAR OLSSON . PhysicaI Climatology: Selected Applications . J. E. OLIVER . Geomorphological Techniques . ANDREW GOUDIE (ed.). Political Politics, Geography and Behaviour . RICHARD MUIR AND RONAN PADDISON . The State of the World Atlas . MICHAEL KIDRON AND RONALD SECAL . Population The Population of the South . DUDLEY L. POSTON , JR . AND ROBERT H. WELLER , eds. Regional Latin America: Economic Development and Regional Differentiation . ARTHUR MORRIS . Developing the Amazon . EMILIO F. MORAN . Western Europe: A Systematic Human Geography . BRIAN W. ILBERY . Settlement Systems in Sparsely Settled Regions: The United States and Australia . RICHARD E. LONSDALEAND JOHN H. HOLMES , eds. African Perspectives: The Economic Geography of Nine African States . HARM DE BUJ AND ESMOND MARTIN , eds. Rural Nonmetropolitan America in Transition . AMOS H. HAWLEY AND SARA MILLS MAZIE , eds. Social Crime and Environment . R. NORMAN DAVIDSON . The Ghetto: Readings with Interpretations . JOE T. DARDEN , ed. Urban Urban Problems and Planning in the Developed World . MICHAEL PACIONE (ed.) Problems and Planning in Third World Cities . Edited by MICHAEL PACIONE . The City in West Europe . D. BURTENSHAW , M. BATEMAN , AND C. J. ASHWORTH .     

斜轴式望远镜动力学建模与鲁棒控制

斜轴式望远镜是一种新颖的望远镜结构, 其独特的结构设计更适合南极等极端气候环境, 但目前国内外缺乏针对斜轴式望远镜详细的动力学建模与控制研究. 提出一套斜轴式望远镜动力学建模与鲁棒控制方法, 首先, 对斜轴式望远镜进行了动力学分析, 采用拉格朗日法建立望远镜2自由度刚体模型; 接着, 结合望远镜驱动系统的柔性和所受干扰, 完成了斜轴式望远镜的干扰情况下刚柔耦合系统数学模型的推导; 然后, 针对抗干扰问题, 根据所建数学模型, 设计了基于干扰观测器的滑模控制器, 对于所受干扰进行抑制, 实现了斜轴式望远镜的鲁棒控制; 最后, 仿真结果显示, 在考虑模型的非线性外部干扰的情况下, 相比于传统的比例-积分-微分控制器, 基于干扰观测器的滑模控制器使得系统具有更好的动态性能和抗干扰特性.     

浅海覆盖区金矿勘查技术方法组合探讨——以胶东三山岛北东浅海区找矿勘查为例

在浅海覆盖区,常规的地质找矿工作开展难度较大,并缺少有效的技术方法,限制了浅海区找矿勘查工作。本文以三山岛北东浅海地区找矿勘查为例,采用重力测量+高精度磁法剖面测量+地震剖面测量+浅钻取样化探剖面测量+钻探的勘查技术方法组合,解译并控制了浅海覆盖区控矿构造,发现了金矿体。结果表明该技术方法在浅海覆盖区找矿勘查的有效性,对浅海覆盖区找矿勘查具有一定的参考价值。     

Removal of intertidal algae by herbivores in experimental frames and on shores near Auckland

When grazing animals are excluded from any intertidal area algae grow unchecked. In screened frames on the shore where predation experiments are in progress such growth is undesirable. A number of shore herbivores were tested for their ability to remove such algal growth and prevent its reformation without interfering with the main experiments. Only the browsing species Lunella smaragda and Melagraphia aethiops were capable of removing large algal growths, and these species were acceptable food for some of the predatory species. The complex inter‐relationship between grazing species and shore zonation at several places near Auckland is discussed.     

基于CSST多色测光的时序测光精度分析

中国巡天空间望远镜(Chinese Survey Space Telescope, CSST)是中国的首个大型空间光学望远镜, 将对包括系外行星探测在内的诸多科学目标开展研究, 有望取得前沿科学进展. 时序测光精度是CSST重要的性能指标, 受到物理噪声和仪器噪声的影响, 需要通过数值模拟对其分析和评估. 模拟基于目前公布的CSST主要技术参数, 建立了时序的恒星信号和噪声模型, 以CSST的i波段为例, 分析凝视观测模式下的测光精度. 通过数值仿真, 展示了孔径测光中各项噪声的贡献, 特别是由指向抖动和像素响应不均匀性导致的抖动噪声. 模拟结果还给出了测光孔径的推荐范围. 为了获得更高的信噪比, 可以减小仪器抖动振幅和像素不均匀性, 或者采用参考星较差测光的方式. 结果为CSST后续的时序测光精度与不同指标参数的相关性分析、系外行星探测能力评估以及测光数据处理提供了模拟数据的支撑.     

Time‐series high‐resolution spectroscopy and photometry of ε Aurigae from 2006–2013: Another brick in the wall

We present continuous and time‐resolved R = 55 000 optical échelle spectroscopy of ε Aurigae from 2006–2013. Data were taken with the STELLA Echelle Spectrograph of the robotic STELLA facility at the Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife. Contemporaneous photometry with the Automatic Photoelectric Telescopes at Fairborn Observatory in Arizona is presented for the years 1996–2013. Spectroscopic observations started three years prior to the photometric eclipse and are still ongoing. A total of 474 high‐resolution échelle spectra are analyzed and made available in this paper. We identify 368 absorption lines of which 161 lines show the characteristic sharp disk lines during eclipse. Another 207 spectral lines appeared nearly unaffected by the eclipse. From spectrum synthesis, we obtained the supergiant atmospheric parameters T_eff = 7395 ± 70 K, log g ≈ 1, and [Fe/H] = +0.02 ± 0.2 with ξ_t = 9 km s^–1, ζ_RT = 13 km s^–1, and v sin i = 28 ± 3 km s^–1. The residual average line broadening expressed in km s^–1 varies with a period of 62.6 ± 0.7 d, in particular at egress and after the eclipse. Two‐dimensional line‐profile periodograms show several periods, the strongest with ≈110 d evident in optically thin lines as well as in the Balmer lines. Center‐of‐intensity weighted radial velocities of individual spectral lines also show the 110‐d period but, again, additional shorter and longer periods are evident and are different in the Balmer lines. The two main spectroscopic Hα periods, ≈ 116 d from the line core and ≈ 150 d from the center‐of‐intensity radial velocities, appear at 102 d and 139 d in the photometry. The Hβ and Johnson V I photometry on the other hand shows two well‐defined and phase‐coherent periods of 77 d and 132 d. We conclude that Hα is contaminated by changes in the circumstellar environment while the Hβ and V I photometry stems predominantly from the non radial pulsations of the F0 supergiant. We isolate the disk‐rotation profile from 61 absorption lines and found that low disk eccentricity generally relates to low disk rotational velocity (but not always) while high disk eccentricity always relates to high velocity. There is also the general trend that the disk‐absorption in spectral lines with higher excitation potential comes from disk regions with higher eccentricity and thus also with higher rotational velocity. The dependency on transition probability is more complex and shows a bi‐modal trend. The outskirts of the disk is distributed asymmetrically around the disk and appears to have been built up mostly in a tail along the orbit behind the secondary. Our data show that this tail continues to eclipse the F0 Iab primary star even two years after the end of the photometric eclipse. High‐resolution spectra were also taken of the other, bona‐fide, visual‐binary components of ε Aur (ADS 3605BCDE). Only the C‐component, a K3‐4‐giant, appears at the same distance than ε Aur but its radial velocity is in disagreement with a bound orbit. The other components are a nearby (≈ 7 pc) cool DA white dwarf, a G8 dwarf, and a B9 supergiant, and not related to ε Aur. The cool white dwarf shows strong DIB lines that suggest the existence of a debris disk around this star. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Pencil-beam surveys for trans-neptunian objects: Limits on distant populations

Two populations of minor bodies in the outer Solar System remain particularly elusive: Scattered Disk Objects and Sedna-like objects. These populations are important dynamical tracers, and understanding the details of their spatial- and size-distributions will enhance our understanding of the formation and on-going evolution of the Solar System. By using newly-derived limits on the maximum heliocentric distances that recent pencil-beam surveys for trans-neptunian objects were sensitive to, we determine new upper limits on the total numbers of distant SDOs and Sedna-like objects. While generally consistent with populations estimated from wide-area surveys, we show that for magnitude-distribution slopes of α ? 0.7-1.0, these pencil-beam surveys provide stronger upper limits than current estimates in literature.